Chinese government censors ruling lines through Australian books

Chinese government censors are reading Australian publishers' books and, in some cases, refusing to allow them to be printed in China if they fail to comply with a long list of restrictions.

Publishing industry figures have confirmed that the censors from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China are vetting books sent by Australian publishers to Chinese printing presses, even though they are written by Australian authors and intended for Australian readers.

Any mention of a list of political dissidents, protests or political figures in China, including president Xi Jinping, is entirely prohibited, according to a list circulated to publishers and obtained by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

A screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping during a symposium in Hong Kong.Credit:AP

Printing books, particularly those with colour illustrations, is significantly cheaper in China, so some publishers have little choice but to put them through the government censorship process.

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Sandy Grant, of publisher Hardie Grant, said he had scrapped a proposed children's atlas last year because the censors ruled out a map. Chinese authorities are extremely sensitive about maps, and any map appearing in a book must fit with the Communist Party view of the world.

"I think this book might have said Tibet on one map," Mr Grant told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Printing the book in Germany or Italy – the only other realistic choices – would have made it uneconomic, so he abandoned the project.

"We're exposed to it, we are dealing with it. We were very angry when we were told we couldn't print children's maps that were pretty innocent. We didn't proceed with the project because we couldn't find a cost-effective solution."

The Australian office of one Chinese printer has produced a list of "key words to be alerted" for their publishing clients, which has been obtained by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

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Among them are key "political incidents", including the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the pro-democracy protests in 2011 and the 2014 umbrella revolution in Hong Kong. The Tibetan independence movement, Uighur nationalism and Falun Gong are also taboo subjects.

Mention of all major Chinese political figures, including Mao Zedong and the current president, Mr Xi, and all current members of the Politburo Standing Committee is ruled out, as is a long list of 118 dissidents who are not allowed to be mentioned.

This political content, including "anything relating to Chinese political icons in recent history," political movements or dissidents would simply not be printed in China.

"Prohibition (Not able to pass through censorship)", says the guide.

One named dissident, Wu Lebao, has, since December, been an Australian citizen and science student at the ANU. He was suspected of leading China's "Jasmine Revolution" protests in 2011 with artist Ai Weiwei, whose name also appears on the list. Mr Wu came to Australia as a refugee.

He said his inclusion on the list "comes as a surprise to me", because since settling in Australia he been focused on his science career.

"China has just got more and more aggressive; they cannot be satisfied by their censorship in China, they would like to expand it to western countries, especially Australia, since we have a large Chinese population," Mr Wu said.

"The Chinese government would like complete control over the Chinese population in Australia that's why they want to censor Australian media, Australian public."

Most major religions are also on the "sensitive" list, as well as a long list of Chinese, or former Chinese locations, most relating to current or former border disputes. The printer's guidance says these things can be published after vetting by censors.

The "regular approval turnaround time" for books containing religious content is between 10 and 15 working days, according to the document. Maps, including "any map with borderline of any country, including but not limited to China and other surrounding countries" would take up to 30 working days to censor, and would need to be vetted by the "State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping".

Pornography was ruled out entirely, but artistic nudity or sexual acts could be censored in 10 working days.

A printing industry source who works with Chinese presses confirmed that the rules, in theory, had been in place for a long time, but that, "all of a sudden they've decided to up the ante".

"They're checking every book; they're very, very strict at the moment. I don't know how they're reading every book, but they definitely are," the printer said.

"If you can avoid adding any of those things in your book, I'd definitely advise it ... It's totally out of our control, and affects all the companies printing in China.

"It's a lot of extra work for us; we definitely wouldn't enforce this is we didn't have to."

The change had happened in the past few months.

Mr Grant confirmed that, from the publisher's point of view, "it has been creeping up over a period" of months.

"We do quite a lot of travel guides, mapping, and they're very sensitive to mapping issues. Borders have got to be borders that they think are borders, not what international law says."

Michael Bachelard is The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald's foreign editor and the investigations editor at The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta as Indonesia correspondent. He has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley in 2017.